Asiascape Occasional Papers (Asiascape Ops) are an internationally peer-reviewed publication series that are available free of charge via Asiascape.net.
In recognition of the under-representation of cyberculture in many of the mainstream academic journals (and hence the difficulty encountered by scholars, journalists and others in finding reliable, scholarly sources in these fields), Asiascape Ops deliberately utilises free, web-based distribution in order to assist in the dissemination of serious scholarship in the areas of cyberculture, animanga etc., with the goal of helping to establish a lively, rich, diverse and thriving field. Materials available here can be used freely in teaching and/or research, and we simply ask that proper scholarly conventions (including copyright) be observed when citing the material.
Submissions to the editorial board are welcome. In keeping with international academic practices, all submissions will be blind-refereed by at least two recognised scholars in the appropriate field. Asiascape Ops has its own ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) references. Applications for permission to reprint should be sent to ops@asiascape.net.
The Asiascape Collection v.1
The Asiascape Collection brings together the first 5 Asiascape Ops as well as additional essays drawn from a special Asiascape issue of the newsletter of the International Institute for Asian Studies themed on CyberAsia.
It can be downloaded as a PDF here, or you can request a beautiful, bound copy for your collection and/or library. Send such requests here.
Asiascape Ops 1: Anime, Thought Experiments and the Limits of the Human
Chris Goto-Jones
"What if a cyber-brain could generate its own ghost, create a soul by itself? And if it
did, just what would be the importance of being human then?"
Major Kusanagi, Ghost in the Shell, Oshii Mamoru, 1991
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Asiascape Ops 2: Electrosonic Autonomy: Building up Virtual Acoustic Space From Avant-garde Techné to Karaoke Singer
Young Sook Choi
"The King of Pop, Elvis Presley, died about thirty years ago, but in a way he still exists today. You can listen to his music any time you want by pressing play; sometimes a DJ remixes his song in a dance-floor-friendly and contemporary version, and you can hear his music on the radio while having a dinner at a restaurant or driving a car."
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Asiascape Ops 3: Nostalgia and Futurism in Contemporary Japanese Sci-Fi Animation
Yoko Ono
"Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) is one the most dominant genres in Japanese popular visual media, namely manga and anime. Although Sci-Fi generally deals with events that take place in the future, Japanese anime/manga abounds with nostalgic images that coexist in these futuristic settings."
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Asiascape Ops 4: Virtual Death of the Human Being:
Time and the (Ir)Reversibility of
Choice in Digital Media
Fabian Schäfer
"This paper would like to distinguish Japanese cultural critic Azuma Hiroki’s concept of human and animal action, and Martin Heidegger’s authentic and fallen selves in terms of the notions of choice and reversibility, and pose the question of whether the subject of virtual choice is best understood through the former or the latter.."
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Asiascape Ops 5: Beyond Utopia - New Politics, the Politics of Knowledge and the Science Fictional Field of Japan
Christopher Goto-Jones
"Recognizing that, since the end of the Cold War, political theorists around the world have embarked upon a deliberate quest for difference and innovation in their discipline, triggered by the apparently ‘world historic’ victory of liberal capitalism, this five-year project aims to uncover a series of sites of difference and innovation."
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